HUDSON VALLEY CRUCIAL VIEWING: February 6- 19

Your Guide to Repertory Movies in the Hudson Valley

Author

Bel Simek
February 05, 2026

Happy February moviegoers! Hopefully everyone survived the Polar Vortex Winter Storm at the end of January. As our collective extremities begin to warm slightly (highs of 30, oh my!) I hope you’ll find the motivation to get out of the house here and there to see a movie. There’s some excellent repertory programming coming up in the next two weeks amidst a slew of highly anticipated new releases. This is the hardest time of year to get out of the house, period, but I hope you can bring yourself to do it. I know the trek itself is daunting, but once you’re in the cozy embrace of a warm, dark theater it’ll be worth it.

Our February series at Upstate Midtown started this past Sunday with The Apartment. You have one last chance to catch it tonight at 7:30, but if you can’t make it out we’ve got three other fantastic films in the coming weeks, starting with the Dolly Parton classic 9 to 5, opening this Sunday. More about that below.

On a final, sad note, we want to acknowledge the announcement of the closure of Story Screen Cinema in Hudson. As you all know, we’re big fans of Story Screen’s work, and they’ve been a frequent feature of this list over the last few years. Independent theater programming has and always will be a labor of love. This is the end of one chapter, but we look forward to what they have in store next. If you’re in the Hudson Valley this weekend, their last day for programming in the Hudson space is February 8th. If you’re able to make it out to show them some love, we hope you will.

Now, with all that aside, on to the list:

THE LIST

Friday, February 6

Saturday, February 7

I wrote about Let the Right One In back in November when Upstate Films showed it for their “Witching Hour” series. I don’t wanna rehash much about it here because, as I’ve said before, I think this movie is best when you go in blind the first time around. However, I do want to give a brief shout out to Community’s February series “Everybody Needs Love.” I think programming any holiday specific film series can be a real challenge because you have to balance the expected with your own curatorial tastes and you’ll never please everyone. I think this series manages to scratch a lot of different itches when it comes to “romantic” films, so if you can make it out to catch one (or a few) I hope you do.

Sunday, February 8

I’m linking you all back to last week’s post because I want to remind you I LOVE Brokeback Mountain. That’s all.

KFF Presents: I mentioned this briefly last week, but something I’m proud of with our “Comedy on the Clock” programming is that it spans a little over half a century of American cinema. It can be really hard to program a survey because there’s never enough time to show everything that elucidates the broad strokes of a genre. Workplace comedies have been a staple since the advent of American film, and office dramas continue to fascinate every generation. 9 to 5 is one of the sillier films in our line-up this month, but it’s also a movie that is doing some retrospective work of its own. It navigates office politics and sexism expected from a film of the 1980s, but it also ruminates on landmark labor issues of the decades prior, and ones that we’re still thinking about today. Though it might be imperfect in its execution and remembered more for its star-making power with Dolly Parton and its campy fun, it deserves a nod for its light-hearted commentary. I think this would be a fun double feature with Witches of Eastwick, another female revenge film from the 1980s that stumbles in its execution but remains a cult classic.

Monday, February 9

The history of black filmmaking in the US is marred by a system of racism, disinterest, and dismissal from the tastemakers and critics that ruled in the 20th and 21st century. Bill Gunn is a director whose career was distinctly impacted by exactly that system and this film, Ganja and Hess, a brilliant, sexy, sumptuous take on the vampire genre, was demolished in box offices by negative reviews upon its release. Now heralded as one of the greatest films in the genre and lauded by film buffs, its a great example of the way cinephilia has and continues to be defined by a racist, narrow system of tastemaking. If you haven’t seen this film and you consider yourself a film buff, this should probably end up near the top of your list. Decolonize your consumption and do your reading.

Tuesday, February 10

Wednesday, February 11

This is the first of Luca Guadagnino’s “Desire” trilogy, followed by 2015’s A Bigger Splash and 2018’s Call Me By Your Name. If you love a melodrama (like many at KFF do) you’ll love this movie. Developed for over a decade with Tilda Swinton, the film has all of Guadagnino’s hallmarks as a filmmaker; sensual, erotic, and sumptuous in its costuming, cinematography, and European splendor, the film embraces its old money subjects and philosophizes. It’s a rhapsodic meditation on desire, tradition, and the heart, and while it could be corny, its lavishness and Swinton’s unbelievable performance ground it in genuine emotionality. Worth a watch.

Thursday, February 12

KFF Presents

Friday, February 13

Saturday, February 14

Have you watched Wings of Desire recently? If you haven’t, I think you should. I’ve never really found the appropriate language with which to talk about this film. It’s a transcendent experience, with incredible visuals, understated and moving performances, and a central premise that is as uncomfortably human as it is supernaturally moving. Writing about it in such a short format feels like a cop-out because there is so much to dig into, so much to say, a couple hundred words does nothing to capture it. There’s obviously a lot of romantic films in the list this week looking towards the commercialization of romance with Valentine’s Day, but if I had to pick exactly one to see, it would be this one. If you’re here, you’ve probably already seen it, and you probably already know how rich of an experience rewatching it is, but I’ll say it anyway. If you watch one film before the 14th (or on the day of) it should be this one, and if you can make it to the theater, you really ought to.

Sunday, February 15

KFF Presents: Okay, this is my pick for “Comedy on the Clock,” which means I’m obviously biased towards it, but guys. I am so excited that we get to show this film. As controversial as mumblecore might be as a microgenre, its influence on the independent cinema scene in the early 2000s and 2010s is undeniable. Andrew Bujalski is one of the founding filmmakers of the scene, and his career has quietly proceeded, underwritten in parts by the success of peers like Greta Gerwig and Jay Duplass. Support the Girls is one of Bujalski’s more recent films, and one that eschews the mumblecore designation for what feels like a more mature and constructed film without sacrificing the scrappy, cinema veritas feel. Focusing on an almost all-female cast, the film follows the lives of the employees at a chain sports bar. Imagine a movie about the behind-the-scenes drama at a Hooters, and I mean that in the best sense. The film navigates dynamics of race, sexism, and class with grace, and it’ll bring you to tears and quickly as it will make you crack up. This is one of my favorite service industry movies, and I think its an unsung gem of the 2010s. I really hope y’all roll up for it.

Monday, February 16

Tuesday, February 17